Pierre Bezukhov and Christopher Moltisanti

Count Bezukhov (War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy) and Christopher Moltisanti (The Sopranos) apparently look at man-woman interaction as one in which the female counterpart is ideally placed on the receiving end. In the Sopranos' episode Full Leather Jacket, when asked by his girlfriend the reason why they always fight, Christopher, unable to step away for a second from his self-centered weltanschauung, answers, 'I don't always communicate my needs'. Adriana is a woman not always alert to nuances such as these, especially in bed right after being fully satisfied by her Italian stallion as well as under the weight of the massive rock attached to her engagement ring. 

Tolstoy too seems to prefer women who are quite content lending a supportive sympathetic ear to men, when they choose to pour their hearts out without fear of being interrupted by over intelligent females and their witty remarks. To wit,

"Now that he [Pierre Bezukhov] was telling it all to Natasha he experienced that pleasure which a man has when women listen to him- not clever women who when listening either try to remember what they hear to enrich their minds and when opportunity offers to retell it, or who wish to adopt it to some thought of their own and promptly contribute their own clever comments prepared in their little mental workshop- but the pleasure given by real women gifted with a capacity to select and absorb the very best a man shows of himself."

But I suspect that feisty Adriana La Cerva, played by Drea de Matteo, is quite a different kettle of fish when compared to the fawn-eyed Russian (Audrey Hepburn).

I am halfway through the second season of The Sopranos and enjoying every minute of it.